This is why I left, and Why I'm coming back
by thefatcat25
Summary: After being brainwashed by Angel, the flock kicked Max out of their home. Angry, Max ran (aka flied) to the only other place she calls home. The Martinex house. Fang misses Max and wants to go look for her, but has no idea where to start without Angel finding out. Eventual FAX just because FAX is amazing haha Sorry crappy summary, please read! Slightly AU...
1. Chapter 1

**Heyo FanFiction! I've been reading MaxRide ff for a while now, so I decided to write one of my own! This is slightly AU, but you will figure that out as the story progresses! Hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 1

They are kicking me out. They are kicking me out and are telling me to never come back. That they never want to see my face around again anytime soon.

Gazzy, my little trooper, hates me. Instead of his usual mischievous gleam, all I can see is hatred in his eyes. I want him to come over, laugh at me, and give me a hug, saying this is all a joke and they were just kidding. Nothing like that happens though.

Iggy, my perverted pyro, has on a mask of disgust. Both his unseeing eyes are trained at the ground; he is so not-okay with my presence that he can't even stand to look in my direction.

Nudge, my loud-mouthed fashionista, is staring directly into my face, boring into my soul with accusations that I didn't even do. Her arms are folded and her feet are shoulder width apart. If I'm not gone within the next minute, I know she's ready to make me leave.

But the thing that hurts the most, which gives me a pang of sadness straight through my heart, like a flash of blue fire running down my core, is the look on Fang's face. My best friend, in the entire world, is also pointing to the door. He doesn't say anything, but the stony look on his face is exactly that, stone. That speaks louder than words.

Whose fault is this? What is making my family, the only people I love, hate me? Who is the reason that my family, who I have taken care of for years, wants me gone now?

Angel.

She's got them so brainwashed that I doubt they even understand what they are doing, or even if they will remember it in the morning.

I stand up from the couch I was sitting on, watching reruns on our crap TV, and said, "You want me out? Is this really what you want?"

Even though I wasn't talking to her, Angel answers for the group. "You led the Erasers right to us Max. They knew our exact location every time, no matter how often we moved around. They knew when and where our weakest points would be, and they used it against us. Every time. We know you are a double agent, we've blown your cover; stop pretending."

"Was I asking you?" I snap back, "I'm pretty sure that question was pointed at Iggy over here. Let me rephrase the question for you Igs."

I could see the internal confusion run along his face. The hatred in his eyes flickers to something else- something I cannot place. His eyebrows start to climb together, like two hairy caterpillars.

"I want…" Iggy begins. Angel has a frown on and looks slightly constipated. Well, she deserves it!

_Fight Iggy, fight her. Don't let her take you away from me! _

I could feel something banging around on my mind block. The Voice had taught me to block my mind from intruders just a few days back. Now, not even Angel could talk to me.

I give the bird to Angel, and she flinches slightly. _Good, _I think to myself. _At least she still knows I can still kick her butt until next Tuesday._ "Yes, Iggy?" I say.

"I want… I need…" He pauses for a second before continuing. His face has smoothed over and the caterpillars on his face have migrated back to their original, and much more flattering, positions. "We need you to leave. You have betrayed us. You are not a part of our family anymore."

And then it hits me. Angel really does have complete control. I know these kids, they would fight for me until their arms fell off, and they know I would do the same for them. I _know _inside their heads there is nothing going on, because if there was they would be fighting the heck out of Angel's mind control.

I know it's irrational, but I'm angry. They aren't fighting. They aren't trying to keep me. They are showing me the door instead. Not even showing me the door, shoving me to the door would be more like it.

"You do know what all of you are doing, right," I glare at all of them in turn, but I don't even get a flinch back. "What will happen as I walk out of that door? You will be losing me. Maximum Ride. The girl that keeps you together. That picks you up when you are down. When I take that first step, I will be one more foot away from helping you ever again."

My anger morphed into sadness. I am sick and tired of Angel getting the upper hand, even in small things, like calling shotgun before me because I got "confused" where the car was. All I want is a smooth running life with my friends. My family. My flock.

Oh, right. This is my life. Plus, the world is most likely conspiring against me.

I walked closer and gave everyone one last pleading look. I know, pathetic. But let's just remember that my life is being decided by a bunch of brainwashed-bird kids who are being controlled by a 7 year old. So yeah, I'm pleading.

Even with my face looking all sad a puppy-like, all I got back was angry glares and defensive stances.

"Fine. You win. I will leave." And I'm starting to get worked up now… "But don't come looking for me when you don't know what to do next. When you are cold and starving on the side of the streets, don't go searching for me. Gazzy, when you get nightmares, I'm not going to me around to give you a hug. So don't even call out my name. Iggy, when someone accidentally leaves you in a room you have never been in before, I won't be there to tap your hand and show you where to go. Because we all know, you will get left behind at one point or another. You don't deserve my awesome-ly creative pep talks anymore."

I could feel the waterworks coming, but Maximum Ride does not give into petty things like crying, so I kept on yelling.

"Nudge, when you feel alone and need a shoulder to cry on, don't look at me. Because I won't be there."

This next part was going to be hard to get out without my voice, the real one, not the one inside my head, from cracking.

I walked closer to Fang, and looked right into his face as I let him have it.

"Fang, when you want your best friend back, I don't even care. I don't care about you, I don't care about your angst, and I don't care about my feelings for you. I don't care about you, because you don't seem to care about me either."

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I could see everything going on inside Fang's head by staring straight into those onyx eyes. If you looked close enough, you could see tiny flicks of silver around the rim of his pupil. You could also see the blankness. Normally I could tell exactly what was going through that thick head of his at any given moment, but right not I was shut off.

I could see nothing, so I got even angrier.

"Who do you think you are?" I was yelling directly into his face now. "You told me you would never, ever leave again, so instead you are forcing me to go? If you cared at all about me or our relationship, however messed up it may be, you would stand up for me! Fight back! Why are you not feeling sorry!? How can you even call yourself my friend?!

By that point, I was screaming so loud I was surprised no one's eardrums popped out.

I gestured to everyone, "What kind of people are all of you? Do I know you anymore? Heck, if you act like this I don't think I want to know you."

Leaving it at that, I took off into the sky, never looking back.

We were in Oregon. The nights were chilly, but the days were conferrable. We were in the wooded section of the state, for cover. If you hovered above the trees, not even raptor vision could see the ground below.

"Hey, Fang, do you see anyplace down there where we could catch some zzzzzz's?" I asked him. He was flying farther ahead of us to look around.

"I see some!" shouted Iggy.

I rolled my eyes at him, and then remembered he couldn't see me, so I retorted back, "I'm rolling my eyes, Iggy."

I caught the quick smirk on his face as Fang shouted back, "Yeah, a clearing is up ahead. We can sleep there."

A man of many words, I know. But he was actually becoming a lot better with speaking in sentences. After we defeated Itex, he opened up a bit every day. At this point, he smiled more often and sometimes, if we were lucky, we even got a whole paragraph! Being Fang, he still wore black and was as cryptic as ever, but I think, he was getting better.

We all were.

**Please let me know if I should continue! Still kinda on the fence…. Oh and if you see any mistakes tell me because this is unbeta-ed haha**


	2. Chapter 2

**Boo! I would just like to say... THANK YOU SO FREAKING MUCH IF YOU REVIEWED OR FOLLOWED! I LOOOOOVE YOUUUUUU! haha I haven't decided if I like this chapter or not, so let me know what you think! oh and if you get confused at all about what is going on just ask, its's kinda complicated with all the time changes and stuff!**

Chapter 2

I like him better this way. The kids know what he's thinking without me as the stand-in translator.

The deeper emotions were still conveyed through his eyes. I loved how he was opening up, but I still hoped that he would keep his soul inside just for me to see.

"MAX, I'M HUNGRY!" Nudge complained, rather loudly… I swear, someday she's going to blow my eardrums out.

"Yeah, that's why we're landing, hun," I said in, I'll admit, a slightly sarcastic tone. It had been about eight hours since we had last eaten… and I don't even know if dumpster-diving counts as a real meal…

Fang's wings tipped as he banked closer to the trees. We all followed suit and started flying closer and closer to the treetops. Soon we could all see a break in the foliage and landed in the tiny field.

The clearing was flat, with the occasional boulder, and covered with wildflowers. It looked like one of those cliché fields that children would go frolicking through in the movies. Not that I have ever watched a move where children frolicked through fields… never mind. There were pink flowers and blue flowers and purple flower, Angel and Nudge were going to have a field day; I bet by the end of the night everyone will have at least one flower crown on top of their heads.

Fang and I did the routine 360's, at the exact same time. We have spent waaaaaay to much time around each other. We knew what the other's next moves so well we worked like a well-oiled machine.

We haven't been attacked in weeks, but you can never be so sure. After years of always watching our backs, I don't think any of us will get over being so paranoid.

Because the trees were so close together, anyone who searched through the forest by foot wouldn't be able to see us, but at the same time we wouldn't be able to see anyone sneaking up on us.

Night was falling, and it was time to set up camp. One of the larger boulders looked like a sideways bowl, so if any of the Erasers decided to go all flying-wolf-boys on us, they wouldn't see us right away. There was lots of grass underneath so sleeping on the ground shouldn't be too hard tonight.

"Hey, Gaz, can you go point out landmarks to Iggy? And we also need to set up tents… Angel and Nudge, could you handle that? They should all be in Fang's and mine backpacks.

Yes, we have tents now. Stole them from Wal-Mart.

"Fang and I are going to go catch dinner and collect fireworks," I said to no one in particular, "we should be back in, like, twenty."

The kids started shuffling around like the tired little bird kids they were. I felt bad about leaving them here to set up camp alone, but food wasn't going to find itself.

Fang and I made eye-contact as we shot into the sky at the exact same moment. Like a boss.

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With our crazy-good vision, Fang and I scoured the ground for other breaks in the foliage to land. When we do find a spot, we are about five minutes away from the camp- in normal flying time. If I put on the boosters, I could make it back in a minute tops.

"So, Fang," I said, conversationally.

"So, Max," he answered back.

Lucky us, the trees were all dying in this area for some reason, so dead branches littered the ground. All we had to do was scoop them up and throw them in bucket/basket/hammock-thing we brought.

"Where should we heading next? Anywhere you want to go? Any landmarks you are dying to see?" Fang's opinion always mattered.

Fang shrugged and answered, "As long as it's not LEGOLAND again or anything Disney related, I'm good."

"What if we looked around for a more… permanent residence?" I asked, "Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, where we could fly around freely, and hang out without people bothering us."

"Don't you want to go live with Dr. M?" Fang asked. There was something in his voice, though very small, that made me turn from scooping dead stuff to look at his face.

He looked guarded, maybe scared. Whenever things got rough during the whole Lets-Defeat-The-Worlds-Biggest-Evil-Company-Plan, I did go to the Martinez's house. Sometimes, with or without everyone else. It was like, sometimes I needed to get out of all the crazy and see someone I haven't been around for the past gazillion hours straight.

I think that had an effect on everyone in the Flock. Don't get me wrong, I would die for any of them in a heartbeat, but we all drive each other crazy sometimes! I know that I can always depend on Fang, but he goes through mood swings too. Oh boy does that kid go through mood swings.

"I want to live where you guys are living. You know that," I answered back, slightly annoyed and sheepish that he would even think I would leave them all that easily. They are my family; he is my rock. Why doesn't Fang understand that?

"Do we, though? Do the kids know you would never leave them under any circumstances? No matter how bad we screwed up? How bad the situation got?" Oops. Fang was pissed.

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_If I had known Angel had already started needling her way into their minds, I would have told him off. That I love the Flock. I would never leave them just because things got hard. I would have shaken him until he understood and then smacked him upside the head for good measure. _

_But I didn't. _

_All I did was roll my eyes and shake my head Max-Style, not understanding the seriousness of Fang's tone. _

_And oh boy do I regret it. _

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By the end of our escapade, Fang and I had filled up the basket-thing with dry, old wood all the way. We would have enough wood to keep the fire rolling all night, and then some. At this point, there was no World-Saving to be done. Nothing for us to do but sit around until something else came up.

Because something always comes up.

We couldn't find any rats or mice or anything moving with meat on its bones. And no, I refuse to eat bugs. The line has been drawn at eating insects. Gross.

Nudge would be happy; she had wanted to open up the can of pineapple so bad, she had resorted to begging.

Our meager supply of canned and perishable foods would diminish, but at least the kids would be happy.

Because that's what matters, right?

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On the way back, about a minute into the flight, I started hearing grunts and yells from a ways ahead.

"Hey, do you hear that?"

"Yeah. You want to go ahead and check it out? I can carry all this."

By the expression I read on Fang's face, the adrenaline poured on. He was worried.

Even scared.

And when Fang gest scared, you know all hell is about to break loose.

I kick started the super speed and shot my way towards the campsite.

And, naturally, I didn't like what I found.


End file.
